Of Forgiveness
by CurrentlyIncognito
Summary: The two royalty have a little talk before the battle with our protagonists. One-shot. Read and review!


Disclaimer: Not mine.

Note: Have been wanting to write this since I watched Hellboy 2 a few months back. Finally got the patience to sit down and _type._

Plot: As far as I know, there's none.

Pairings: I supposed it'd be Prince Nuada and Princess Nuala.

Scene: After Prince Nuada caught/kidnapped/saved Princess Nuala and brought her to the place where the soldiers are.

His hands were cold against her skin as he fingered the cut on her face, 'forgive me, my sister.'

She turned her face away from his touch and backed herself into a corner. Her eyes, her beautiful, haunting eyes, filled with emotions he could neither grasp nor comprehend, were fixed on his.

'Do you hate me, my sister?' he sounded sad, pleading. He reached out for her with pale hands, only to retrieve them when he realized that she shied away from them.

He wanted her to stop looking at him. It made his feel so… exposed. 'Do you fear me?' almost a whisper.

'You have changed, brother,' her voice was as seraphic as he remembered. Had she told him to offer his soul to the gods right then, he would have. She was- is beautiful. She has always been beautiful in his eyes. Her eyes. Her lips. Her hair. Her _soul_.

'No I have not, dear sister. _You_ have changed. Have your _rescuers _brainwashed you with lies and deceits?' she winched at his sarcasm. He punched his fists ungracefully at the sides of her face, 'why do you torment me so, my sister?' he leant in, brushing his lips against hers.

Tears were trickling down her face. Still, she remained silent.

'I mean you no harm,' gently, he touched her hair. He brought them to his nose and breathed in her scent, as he used to when they were little.

'I do not torment you, dear brother,' her voice. It engulfed him. Suffocates him. And yet, and yet, he would gladly give his life just to hear her sing again. She has the most enchanting songs; the creatures of his world used to camp outside the castle praying that they could hear her sweet, sweet voice. She once told him that her songs come from the creatures around her. If they were sad, then so was she. Were they happy, then so were her songs. She was fourteen when she first admitted to him that most of her emotions seem to mirror his. She felt how _he_ felt while he was fighting. While he enjoyed it, she cowered from it. She wanted him to stop fighting. He never stopped raging war. She stopped singing once the war began. He never heard her sing after the war.

He wondered if that had changed too... He wondered if he could make her sing for him again.

Her lips were quivering when she opened them, '_You_ torment _me._'

He jerked back to reality. His eyes bored into hers, 'I only wish to free us, my sister. Does that thought torment you so?' his grip on her hair tightened to a point where she had to bend her head or risk losing it.

'We are already free, brother,' she reasoned. 'Stop this madness, brother. While you still can. I do not wish to lose you,' she sounded pleading.

He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his fingers gently, laughing bitterly under his breath. 'Me? Or your new _friends_?'

She looked hurt. He wished he could take the words back. But the indignant look did not waver. She placed a shaking hand on his wounded cheek, 'Can I make you stop, my dear brother?'

He searched her eyes for the fear he was sure would be there, but found none.

He looked for uncertainty.

There was none.

He looked for love.

He found forgiveness.

He turned away. 'Nobody can stop me,' icy, decided.

She wished she was stronger. She wished she could overpower him and take him home. 'I believe…' she paused for breath, 'I believe, Hellboy can stop you.'

His enraged figure did not frighten her. He could never understand why she never cowered from him when he's angry. Especially when he's angry. She sometimes hid from him when he was feeling completely docile. But he found that whenever he is angered, she would be there, staring at him with those eyes. Those angelic eyes. And he could calm down, as if by magic.

He did not calm down now. In fact, the defiant look on her face angered him even more. He pinned her to the wall by her arms, feeling the coldness of the rocks that she felt. 'You have just met them. And yet, you believe they can defeat me?' his wanted to wring her neck until she admitted that she did not truly believe what she had just uttered. Her look told him that he could bang her head against the wall all he wanted, and she would not change her mind.

'I believe that good always triumphs over evil,' whispered lies she tells herself so that she would not feel so sad when she thinks of her brother.

'Evil?' he threw his head back and laughed. It rang in her ears, echoing in the dark cellar, bouncing off chains and mechanical objects until it died away. Nevertheless, he loosened his grip on her arms, 'my dear, naïve sister,' he smiled, 'there is no evil in this world that can compare to the evilness of the humans.'

She looked away, unable to rebuke.

He wrapped his cold, hard arms around hers, 'I will let no harm come to you, my sister. That, I promise you.'

Against her better judgments, she couldn't help leaning her head on his chest. His heartbeat calmed her. In his arms, she felt safe, 'I know, brother. But I cannot promise you the same.'

He let the silence engulf them until he could take it no longer. 'Why do you not fear me, my sister? Is it because you know that I cannot harm you, without harming myself?' he wanted to know.

Her breath warmed his heart. He waited patiently for her to speak. 'Perhaps my fear is well-hidden. Because I do fear you, my brother,' she drew a long breath, 'you terrify me.'

He wished she knew how to lie. He wished she had lied.

'But I love you, dear brother. Is it not the duty of a sister to stand by your side, when the rest of the world turns away?'

He inhaled deeply, 'Then why do you not stand by me now, when I need you most?' he took care not to crush her in his anger, 'why do you turn away and stand by the side of strangers?'

When they were little, she used to take long walks in the gardens, because their father would not permit her to leave the walls of the castle. She was very weak, for some reason, unable to stand the heat for more than hours at a time. He silently agreed with his father's decision to confine her to the castle. He used to sneak little treasures in for her, tell her stories of the world beyond the walls. Her world was the one she saw through him. And when she fit enough to see what truly lies beyond the gates, she held his hands and didn't let go. He swore never to leave her.

Perhaps this was his punishment for not honoring that promise. He turned his back on her by defying his father, leaving her alone for decades, centuries, millenniums, it seemed. And now, she was turning her back on him.

A noise woke them from their daze. Disentangling herself from him, she gazed deeply into his eyes, 'they are here, my brother. Do you really wish to proceed?'

For a fraction of a second, he was unsure. He could start anew with her, run away to a place where nobody knew them. Live happily ever after… or something.

The music of the gears drew him back into the darkness, 'Nobody can stop me.' The words, in his lips, sounded like a truism.

She stood away from him, so he too, could see the invisible line dividing them.

'Forgive me, my brother.'


End file.
